and you may have a swears where you have sunni/shiaa conflict in syria and lebanon and iraq, stretching from baghdad to beirut. and if you have these many sectarian groups fighting, in pockets, various places it will be very dangerous to cover. >> richard engel, you are so capable of covering this, more than almost anybody, it makes me worry about the prospect of covering these things close up. but more than anything, i'm grateful you're back. >> thanks. >> now you have to stay here and become a dentist, a doctor. all right, that will do it for us tonight. let's play hardball.

good evening. i'm michael summer connish in for chris matthews. president obama calls for congress to act on a scaled down deal that would spare the middle class on tax hikes from the first of the year. he spoke with john boehner tonight but is grand bargain still possible when everybody is leaving town. then in the weeks since the shooting massacre in a town that left hand 20 children and six educators dead, we've been hearing for plenty calling for new gun control laws but little from the nra until now. in a bizarre meeting, the head of the nra said the solution to gun vie lerchs in this country is simple. more guns. armed officers, in fact, in every school. it's the same line we've heard from nra, but has the country's

relationship with guns fundamentally changed since newtown? and what we saw is yet another symptom of a real problem for the gop. they don't believe in compromise and they've lurched too far to the right. plus replacing hillary clinton, john kerry gets the job he's waited for his whole life. president obama tapped john kerry as the next secretary of state. and let me finish with the new movie about getting bin laden and how one person can make a huge difference. we begin with the fiscal cliff. david corn is the editor of mother cliff. gentlemen, president obama tonight said he had spoken with speaker boehner in addition to meeting with senate majority leader harry reid. >> i just spoke to speaker boehner, and i also met with senator reid. in the next few days, i've asked leaders of congress to work toward a package that prevents a

tax hike on middle-class americans, protects unemployed american for 2 million americans and lays the groundwork for deficit reduction. that's an achievable goal. that can get done in ten days. once this legislation's agreed to, i expect democrats and republicans to get back to washington and have it pass both chambers. >> jared bernstein, is this actually a setback for the president insofar as the embarrassed speaker was someone at least with whom he was dealing and now the president really doesn't have a negotiation partner? >> i don't think so. i do think in a way it's a setback for the nation because the president and speaker boehner were actually moving to a credible plausible compromise at the very beginning of the week. and, of course, that's horfully off track now when john boehner decided to go to plan b. i think the leverage is enhanced

by this. the problem is i don't know why republicans would nibble at this idea of essentially passing the senate bill. that's what he was describing today sometime before the end of the year when they can wait a few days, go over the cliff and tax rates automatically reach the higher -- i know this is silly, but then they can have a massive tax cut for the broad middle class and have. >> is the prospect of a grand bargain gone? >> the prospect of a grand bargain is absolutely gone for the near term. there's no way to craft that in the few days between now and the end of the year. that doesn't mean that next year they won't be able to sit down and have reasonable conversations about tax reform and entitlement reform, not with these republicans. i don't know why come bau kumbas supposed to break out in january. if they have gridlock and dysfunction as their ultimate goal, there won't be any

reforms. >> what becomes the sequestration if the only thing that can be agreed upon are those that receive a continuing tax break? >> there's a possibility in a kind of small board deal that they agreed to kick it down the road. it is complicated. cutting the tax on the broad middle class, resetting the amt, what's calls the doc fix so medicare doctors don't take a 30% pay cut by the middle of january. that's probably what i expect to see. the sequester, maybe they'll agree to kick it down the road, but maybe it will have to occur. >> david corn, analyze it. it seems as if the more conservative republican members of the house seem to be unwilling to go along with any deal as interpreted i mean the republican clown show got clownier last night, if that's a word. it was kind of remarkable that those of us in washington

watching politics for years to see a speaker of the house fail so miserably to win support for his own measure. he couldn't figure out what was on his own caucus, and so that means that the president is really not negotiating with anybody who can really make a deal. he can't -- you know, he can't cover any check that he writes at the oval office. i mean for weeks now on this show and others, you know, people have been talking about deals and chris mass use always getting on me for being a debbie downer. the real issue is whether boehner can bring along members of his caucus for anything and we saw last night that he really can't and it puts everybody in a tough position, but the president does end up, i think, with a more reasonable upper hand. >> well, david -- >> but the other thing i would alert you to is once they get through this, think what happened last night and what's happening this week is really a bad -- a bad omen for what the

republicans might try to do once again on the debt ceiling in january or february. >> let me ask you about an interim step because president obama argued tonight both parties can agree that taxes on the middle class should not go up. let's watch what he said. >> in ten days we face a deadline. in ten days under current law, tax rates are scheduled to rise. and even though democrats and republicans are arguing about whether those rates should go up for the wealthiest individuals, all of us, every single one of us, agrees that tax rates shouldn't go up for the other 98% of americans, which includes 97% of small businesses. every member of congress believes that. every democrat, every republican. so there is absolutely no reason, none, not to protect these americans from a tax hike.

>> david corn, why won't republicans take that deal? >> well, because i think they're scared of being accused of voting for a tax hike on the rich if they do a tax cut before it expires. we have said for weeks it would be a lot easier for republicans after the tax cuts to come and vote for the 98% below and say, hey, we took the best tax cut deal we can. >> jared, i think that many in the country, and i speak to folks every day for three hours a day. i think that many were hoping for so much more. republicans and democrats, who took a look at that year-long effort, simpson-bowles, and thought it had some attractive qualities because there was equal pay. you know, the military was getting cut, entitlements were being reformed, taxes were being altered. we're nowhere near any of that now. >> put me on that list. i maybe a hard core policy wonk

but we're exactly where they are. i think compromise is the only way we get from where we are to where we need go, and what i've tried to stress and the president has been good on this lately as well. we actually have an economic recovery. it's not strong yet, but it's starting to gain some traction. and the idea that you would gain some self-infliction blow on that is crazy. listen, some of the deals we've been talking about, just to amplify some of the things david said, first of a all this is a very old deal. this is nothing new. and not only will republicans not vote for it because of the 2% david made but they will not vote for not to top 2%, the top 0.2%. that was the plan b. that's how out of touch they are. on the debt ceiling, the president has continuously said, i will not negotiate. the president has to be careful

to not give him that leverage. >> one more clip i want to show you today. president obama said there's a difference between where american people are and where congress is. watch this. >> it's true that and people are a lot more sensible and a lot more thoughtful and much more willing to compromise and give and sacrifice and act responsibly than their elected representatives are. there's a mismatch right now between how everybody else is thinking about these problems, democrats and republicans, outside of this town and how folks are operating here, and we've just got to get that aligned. nobody can get 100% of what they want, and this is not simply a contest between parties in terms of who looks good and who doesn't. >> david corn, that is the sentiment that i made reference to a moment ago. that's what i hear most on a day-to-day basis.

they say, my god, why can't they be adults and hash out a deal. >> let's be fair here. the president is talking about congress, but the real issue is republican house members, not even republican senators. he's doing what he often does in these negotiations, he's being soft in his opposition at this point in time. he also mentioned he's still talking to john bane eroehner, think he still has faith or hope. he didn't whack boehner or make a distinction between democrats and republicans. he sort of vaguely -- he attacked the vague congress, but at the end of the day, it's quite clear he can bring a lot more democrats to the table who are willing to compromise, maybe give on issues they don't want to give on than boehner can. so it's not even a congressional problem. it's a house republican problem. and think at some point in time the president is going to have to change his message a little bit to make that abundantly clear to those americans who are

listening. >> you know, i hear your frustration and criticism with speaker boehner. a part of me feels sorry for him. >> i wish i could. >> i linger under the belief that president obama and speaker boehner in a room together could cut a deal. i think boehner can't crow his colleagues. >> well, yes rk, that's true an i've heard that sympathy for boehner and that's true, but on the other hand, leaders are able to solve problems an he hasn't been able to solve it at all. >> as a fallback plan to protect the middle class, republicans should support passing a bill that extends tax cuts for families up to $250,000, extends unemployment insurance, and delays the so-called sequester while we negotiate additional b policies next year, but the

bottom line is that moving forward on any solution will require corporation from speaker boehner and senator mcconnell. we hope they will return from christmas ready to cooperate. >> he can do that but he controls one half, you know, one of the two bodies in congress. it still boils down to this dynamic that hasn't changed in a year and a half. >> thank you, david corn and jared bern steep. we appreciate your time. coming up, the nra speaks one week after the school massac massacre. that's ahead. this is "hardball," the place for politics. we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of tim and laura. it's amazing how appreciative people are when you tell them they could save a lot of money on their car insurance by switching to geico...they may even make you their best man.

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it's been a week since the massacre in newtown. today the national rifle

association waded into the debate over gun control with a press conference. the group's ceo blamed laws banning guns at schools for the violence. his position, more guns. the nra called for putting an armed guard at every school in the country. >> the only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection. the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. i call on congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation and to do it now. >> training thousands of armed guards and what would it accomplish? would one person have been able

to stop a killer with semiautomatic rifle and body armoire. msnbc political analyst david corn is the washington bureau chief for "mother jones" magazine. are you comfortable with what the nra put forward today? >> absolutely. more guns -- >> do i understand your view that it would be a requirement for teachers? >> what if i'm a teacher who does not know how to carry a fi fi fi firearm -- >> i don't want my kid in your school. >> wow, really. so to a young person pursuing a career in education, going to college with that desire because they want to school young people, they would also need to be trained and comfortable with the idea of carrying a weapon. >> up fortunately this is the

world we live in. this is not a panacea. >> wait minute, david. with that logic, why not arm the students as well. >> the students are children. >> an 18-year-old high school senior. i mean by your logic they, too, should all be carries weapons and the lunch ladies and the bus driver. >> no, but i think the college kids should be armed, absolutely. if they want to. they have the right to protect themselves. the government cannot protect us. they can't be everywhere all the time. the government has delusional thinking. >> it's such a complicating subject and i hate to play into the sound bite. we're 5% of the world's population and we've got 50% of the guns. >> you know, today i think the nra planted a flag on planet bizarreo. i hate to use a sound bite like that. what they then say is we need

more guns like our guest just said, that's the world we live in. no, we live in the world where everyone around the country has mentally deranged people, violent movie games, violent music as we do, and yet they don't have the number of guns we have and strike ily, oddly enough they don't have the same gun violence that we do. i don't know why that point escapes wayne lapierre. >> mr. siebolt, i'm confused. i expected the nra to embrace universe at background checks. i thought nra might get out in front of the ban on military assault rifles. i don't think that message played so well which is what david is saying in middle america. >> the problem not the nra. the problem is we're having the wrong conversation as we should be. not guns. they don't massacre a bunch of

people. >> what i i'm trying to say is the mentally ill have free access to our weapon. "the new york times" had a front page story about the swiss cheese nature of the fbi's record-keeping pertaining to those who have a mental illness or -- >> listen, michael. >> real quick. >> this is what wayne lapierre said. he talked about mental illness. they're opposed to background checks on people who go to gun shows, who sell guns to each other privately, not through gun stores. so it doesn't matter. >> i was shocked by that. i wish we had more time. thank you, david corn. thank you steven siebold. up next, the most challenged quotes of the year. stick around with me for side show and if you want to join me on twitter you just need to spell merconish. this is the place for politics. not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke.

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now to the "sideshow." first a look at the pinocchios. statements from politicians that might be factually challenged. we remember some of the big ones. romney said jeep was shipping over to china and the one from super pac that seemed to blaine mitt romney. enter rick santorum. >> you than nay shah in the netherlan netherlands, but half the people who are euthanized, it's 10%. half of those people are euthanized involuntarily in hospitals because they're older and sick. and so elderly people in the netherlands don't go to hospital. they go to another country because they're afraid because of budget purposes that they will not come out of that hospital. >> don't go trying to track down

statistics about involuntary you than nay shah in the never lands. now to mitt romney romney, that he hasn't paid taxes in 10 years. >> now reid said he got his information from a former bane reinvestor. he was awarded the maximum number of pinocchios. also u.n. ambassador susan rice has come to a point where circumstances led her to be taken out of the opening for secretary of state. her opening line, quite, my talking points for this evening have been provided to me and fully cleared by the intelligence communitity. what could possibly go wrong. late, quote, day after day, i

engage in highly substantive highly technical negotiations with my colleagues here at the u.n., like the russians. as a matter of fact, i can see the russian mission from my house. ♪ deck the halls with bows of holly ♪ ♪ don we now our gay apparel ♪ fa-la-la-la-la la ♪ the ancient carol ♪ >> that's from the same team that allowed us to see call me maybe. that's it for now. up next, your business with j.j. ramberg. begin.

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